Chinese media in Ontario jumped on a reply to a tweet made by Markham Mayor Frank Scarpetti while Justin Trudeau was visiting the city this month. The stories about Markham accepting asylum seekers led to the city’s spokesperson Lama Nicolas making a statement to clarify the city has no plans to resettle refugees.

The stories that led to the statement used language like “so-called asylum seekers,” “illegal border crossers,” and “fake refugees.”

A forum on popular Chinese news site Yorkbbs.com asked “Is there any way to stop refugees from entering Markham?” The post began saying “everyone has probably heard the news about the Markham Mayor saying he wants to accept refugees… is there any way we can stop that?” One commenter suggested printing some posters and telling your neighbours “that the mayor is going to settle refugees here” saying he’s using taxpayers’ money for his own future.

Mayor Scarpetti's tweet.

The strong headline for a story from 51.ca was “Markham mayor tells Trudeau: Let us help accept refugees!” The story incorrectly referenced a tweet from the mayor and a top comment stated “most people choose to be politically correct when they don’t need to pay out of pocket and their lives aren’t affected.”

More than half of Markham residents have a mother tongue other than English or French—for 60 percent of those residents, their mother tongue is Chinese. Many of these residents access news and opinions in their mother tongues. Staying connected with Canada’s ethnic media allows decision makers to see opinions and comments they don’t always find in mainstream media.